Parents of children with type 1 diabetes: Relationships between parental shame, autonomy support, and diabetes management

For parents of children with type 1 diabetes, diabetes management is a stressful, exhausting, and unrelenting task. For parents who are struggling to meet management goals, attending medical reviews can be a stressful experience, yet the ability to successfully partner with their child’s diabetes management team is essential to ensuring successful management. Evidence suggests that perceived scrutiny of parents’ performance by health care professionals and others can be uncomfortable for parents, triggering feelings of shame, guilt, self-criticism, and anxiety, and affecting parents’ diabetes management behaviours and interactions with their child.

This study aims to explore relationships between the health care climate, parents’ experiences of shame, and parents’ beliefs and behaviours in relation to diabetes management including self-efficacy and help-seeking behaviour. This study will uncover hitherto neglected factors that influence successful management of paediatric diabetes by parents, and inform future approaches to management and intervention that will support parents and diabetes care teams to work together toward better child health outcomes.